Birkbeck College adopts Living Wage!

On Wednesday 18 March, the governors of Birkbeck College, University of London unanimously agreed to adopt the full GLA London Living Wage for all contracted staff. This ends a long campaign by Unison, joined by the Students Union, UCU and Unite.

Our campaign was supported by John McDonnell MP, sci-fi author China Mieville,  and director Ken Loach.

By March 2009, it was untenable that the college could continue not to adopt the Living Wage, and the debate turned to which form. Birkbeck’s Finance and General Purposes Committee decided to recommend the lower 2006 IPPR rate of £6.50. This is despite the fact that the IPPR itself pays its cleaning staff the Living Wage. A counter-proposal, developed by Unison, Unite, UCU and the Student Union outlined the necessity of paying a living wage.

This victory marks the triumph of an alliance of unions striving to create a better workplace for all.

In addition, the Students Union, recently reformed as a charity, abolishing the position of a president, and electing five sabbatical trustees, improving representation and campaign efforts were key in this victory. Rob Park and Tami Peterson, student governors were instrumental in Wednesday’s result. Our student union is a reminder to other student unions that the current round of governance reviews, that threaten to strip the voice of students is harmful to the life of universities.

However, Birkbeck cannot yet claim to be a Living Wage campus. The University of London Union (ULU) manage the George Birkbeck Bar on behalf of the college and SU, and have not yet adopted the Living Wage. This will be the next key battleground for the Birkbeck Living Wage Campaign.

ULU should be a central hub for the ongoing success of the campaign across all London colleges, and Birkbeck intends to lead the way. We call on all Student Unions to adopt Living Wage as a first step to seeing our colleges become ethical employers.